Merry Xmas (film)

Merry Xmas is a 2015 American short film directed by Boman Modine and produced by Cinco Dedos Peliculas LLC. The comedic film had its world premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. In June, the short won the Best "Pilot" Award at the 2015 New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles. During Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival, the film screened before a work-in-progress cut of Jen Senko's political documentary, The Brainwashing of My Dad, also produced by Matthew Modine and Adam Rackoff. On August 1, 2015, director Boman Modine and co-producer Adam Rackoff were invited to participate in the "After the Credits" interview series where they discussed the process of casting, shooting, and directing Merry Xmas.^[1] On December 11, 2015, it was announced that Merry Xmas closed a deal with Shorts International, the parent company of ShortsHD, to release the film on a variety of digital EST platforms^[2] including iTunes Movies,^[3] Google Play,^[4] Amazon Video,^[5] and Verizon. During Christmas week, Merry Xmas was featured on the iTunes Short Films page and landed in the top ten sales chart. Of the top ten films, Merry Xmas was the only live-action film and the only short not produced by Disney or DreamWorks.^[6]

Merry Xmas
Directed by	Boman Modine
Written by	Boman Modine Matthew Modine
Produced by	Joe d'Angerio Matthew Modine Adam Rackoff
Starring	Dick Van Dyke Valerie Harper Glenne Headly Matthew Modine
Cinematography	Sara Garth
Edited by	Albert Ruis
Music by	Juano Lippi Kevin MacLeod Ben Wolfe
Distributed by	ShortsTV
Release date	April 19, 2015 (2015-04-19) (Tribeca)
Running time	7 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Story

Merry Xmas tells the story of a mischievous father (Dick Van Dyke) who calls his very busy kids (Matthew Modine and Glenne Headly) to tell them that after 55 years of marriage, he and their mom (Valerie Harper) are getting divorced. Horrified by the news, the children prepare to fly home to stop the divorce and save their parent's marriage.

Film Festivals

Festival	Status	Screening Dates	Awards/Accolades	Filmmakers In Attendance
Tribeca Film Festival[7]	World Premiere	April 19, 20, 23, and 24, 2015	Selected to participate in the Tribeca Presents Channel on United Airlines in December.	Boman Modine, Joe d’Angerio, Adam Rackoff, Sara Garth
Seattle International Film Festival[8]	West Coast Premiere	May 22, 2015	Selected to participate in the Starbucks Digital Network during the festival (May 21–24, 2015).
New Media Film Festival[9]	Los Angeles Premiere	June 9, 2015	Winner, Best Short "Pilot" Award	Boman Modine
Traverse City Film Festival[10]	Michigan Premiere	July 29 and August 1, 2015	Official Selection	Boman Modine and Adam Rackoff
Tumbleweed Film Festival[11][12]	Washington Premiere	July 30, 2015	Official Selection
Oldenburg International Film Festival[10]	International Premiere	September 16–20, 2015	Official Selection	Boman Modine
Calabasas Film Festival[13]		September 17–20, 2015	Official Selection
Long Beach International Film Festival[14]		September 24–27, 2015	Official Selection
Edmonton International Film Festival[15]	Canadian Premiere	October 7, 2015 (as part of Lunchbox Shorts)	Official Selection
Tacoma Film Festival[16]		October 8–15, 2015	Official Selection
15 Short Film Festival	North Carolina Premiere	October 11, 2015	Official Selection
Dallas VideoFest[17]	Texas Premiere	October 16, 2015	Official Selection	Matthew Modine
Petaluma International Film Festival[18]		October 16–18, 2015	Official Selection
Carmel International Film Festival[19]		October 21–25, 2015	Official Selection	Boman Modine
Washington West Film Festival[20]	Virginia Premiere	October 23 and 24 (as part of Shorts Program Two: Saying Goodbye) and October 24 (before the Ed Asner documentary, My Friend Ed)	Official Selection	Adam Rackoff
Naples International Film Festival[21]	Florida Premiere	November 5–8, 2015	Official Selection
YESfest[22]	Indiana Premiere	November 6–8, 2015	Official Selection
Alexandria Film Festival[23]		November 7, 2015	Official Selection	Adam Rackoff
Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival[24]	Delaware Premiere	November 11–15, 2015	Official Selection
SHORT CUTS Short Film Series[25]	Connecticut Premiere	November 18, 2015	Official Selection	Adam Rackoff
Anchorage International Film Festival[26]	Alaska Premiere	December 4–13, 2015	Jury’s Selection Reel[27]
FilmLab Festival	Italian Premiere	October 13–16th, 2016	Official Selection

References

1. Traverse City Film Festival (1 August 2015). "Merry Xmas 2015 Interview". YouTube. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
2. "MERRY XMAS starring Dick Van Dyke – A Holiday Comedy you Don't want to Miss!". templeofgeek.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
3. "Merry Xmas on iTunes". iTunes. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
4. "Merry Xmas – Movies & TV on Google Play". Play.google.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
5. "Amazon.com: Merry Xmas: Valerie Harper, Glenne Headly, Matthew Modine, Ruby Modine: Amazon Digital Services LLC". Amazon.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
6. Modine, Matthew. "Hey! Thank u all for helping @MerryXmasMovie make the #topten #shortfilms on @iTunesMovies !!". Twitter.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
7. "Merry Xmas | 2015 Tribeca Film Festival". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
8. "Merry Xmas". Siff.net. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
9. "Past Fests – New Media Film Festival". Newmediafilmfestival.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
10. "Merry Xmas". Traverse City Film Festival. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
11. "Tumbleweed Film Festival » Buy Tickets". Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
12. "Fun films and fun times – Tumbleweed Film Fest returns for sixth year – Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune". Gazette-tribune.com. 30 July 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
13. "MERRY XMAS – Calabasas Film Festival". Calabasasfilmfestival.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
14. "Films". LBIFF. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
15. "Edmonton International Film Festival – EIFF is an OSCAR Qualifying Film Festival & a '50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee' (MovieMaker Magazine)". Edmonton International Film Festival. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
16. ^{[dead link‍]}
17. "MERRY XMAS – VideoFest 28". Prekindle.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
18. "Films". Petalumafilmfestival.org. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
19. "Line Listing - Carmel Film Fest". Archived from the original on 2015-10-30. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
20. ^{[dead link‍]}
21. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-11-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
22. "2015 Films". Yesfilmfestival.com. 29 July 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
23. "2015 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS – Alexandria Film Festival". Alexfilmfest.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
24. "Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival". Rehobothfilm.com. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
25. "Play with your food". Play with your food. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
26. "Festival Selections". Achoragefilmfestival.org. 17 October 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
27. "Anchorage film festival provides a model for Alaska's future". Alaska Dispatch News. Retrieved 16 November 2017.